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Published: February 28th 2007
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Big Top
This is the first building you see after the visitor's center. It welcomes you to the greatest show on earth and houses the amazing mini-circus model. History lesson:
Sarasota is home to the Ringling estate, once owned by John and Mable Ringling. John was one of five brothers who began and ran the Ringling Brothers Circus, World's Greatest Show. For a short time they were only 9 train cars worth of circus and 25 cents to enter. They were bettered by the Barnum and Bailey Circus which needed 64 rail cars to get around. When Bailey died unexpectedly at 59, the Ringlings bought them out and created the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus, Greates Show on Earth in 1907.
John married Mable later on, and they ended up choosing Sarasota for the winter home of the circus. They built a gothic mansion which they called Ca d'Zan, or house of John, in 1926 on a large waterfront property. It was the first residence in the state to have an elevator, and was very modern in it's conveniences. The couple also assembled a large art collection in their time together. Unfortunately Mable died in 1929 and from there everything went pretty much downhill for John. He died a few years later and left the estate and art collection to the state. After 10 years they
opened their doors to the public, having turned it into a museum. On the grounds today you are able to visit the mansion, the art museum, the circus museum, and a new circus education building.
OK, back to me:
I headed over to the estate one lucky beautiful day. The weather had been gray and cold but this was the first sunny, reasonably warm day in some time. I originally planned to spend most of my time at the art museum - I must admit I was not too interested in anything else to begin with - but my tune quickly changed. It was such a nice place to spend time alone. It made me feel like I was really traveling again, seeing the sights. Museums are much better for me alone, anyway. I like to go at my own pace, read or not read whatever I feel like, and not feel like I have to hurry or wait for someone else. First stop was the ticket counter. And yes, I had my student ID. Cha-ching, I just saved myself $10 on admission and only paid $5. So what that the ID is 5 years out of date. I
Mini-circus
This model is amazing and actually takes quite a while to walked around. still FEEL like a student, have the same amount of money as a student (or less), and like to think I look young enough to be a student and that's what matters. But he did guess that I was in the over-18 category. Couldn't hide that I'm afraid.
I decided to take a quick walk around the grounds since it was such a nice day, before hitting the museum hard. The grounds are big enough for a tram system for people who have trouble walking, but small enough for people like me with a wicked fast walk to get around smoothly on foot. The trees were amazing - huge banyan trees with spanish moss. Beautiful. There is also a rose garden that Mable started, but it is not the time of year for roses. I made it quickly to the back of the estate where the house is, right on the water front. There are two options - you can wait for a free tour which gives you a tour of the bedrooms upstairs as well, or you can do a self-guided tour (ie wander) around the bottom floor only. Being time conscious (it was early but I wanted
Classic Car
This is a classic train car for the animals traveling with the circus back in the day. to het back in time to walk the dog without being cruel), I chose a quick self-guided wander. The house really is lovely - it's sad they had so few years there together. The art work on the ceilings and walls was great. They even had rooms from other homes or buildings that were being sold at auction cut to fit their house and moved in. Amazing. The tour dumps you in the back near the waterfront, which has some beautiful views as well.
My next stop was to rush over to the art museum, which has become Florida's official art museum. It is very orderly, all on one floor, and has 22 rooms, 11 on each side, with a beautiful outside courtyard that connects them. The collection was good but there were not as many artists that I recognized as I am used to. So much for being worldly. I finished with half of the rooms when it was lunch time and I found myself starving. I walked back and just sat in the car, listening to the radio with the windows rolled down, singing and munching a ham sandwich and apple at anyone who happened to walk
Mirror Face
My head's not that big. Really. by. This stuff was probably less weird in other countries. When I got back in I started where I left off and continued through. There are also two new wings that have just opened, one that has an exhibit to celebrate early American art, and the other has representations of 5000 years of jewelry. It was a good time to visit.
It was still early when I finished with the art museum, so I decided to take in the circus buildings. The first one was at the entrance and looked very circus-y, like a big top. It is tehnically a learning center. I didn't expect much and didn't feel that interested, but that changed as soon as I stepped in. It started with the circus music and only got funner from there. Mostly it was a miniature circus that was so amazing. For a miniature, it was huge. It covers 3800 square feet and is a replica of the circus at it's largest. It took over 50 years to be built and is absolutely amazing to see. It takes a long time to get around it and is so impressive to see. They even have the lighting change from
day to night and back while you're in there to get a sense of what it was really like. Nothing has ever made me want to go to a circus more, especially an old-timey three ring circus that travels by rail. I'm going to have to say if youy don't get to visit this place, at least check out their website as http://www.ringling.org/circus_museum_model.asp to get a look at the model if nothing else. Wow.
The circus museum building was also a lot of fun to go through. They had old circus train cars and equipment and posters and information and everything you could think of. Even a video of the most famous animal trainer ever, as far as I could see. Oh I regret not being a carnie. What a sweet freaky life. Maybe there's still time.
After the circus museum I had a little time left so I ran back to the mansion to see if I could join a tour to see the bedrooms and get some more history of the place. I was lucky - there was a tour about to begin and a space left. Yee-haw. It took a little longer than I had
anticipated, but it was quite good and the rooms upstairs were worth it in the end. It left me rushing to get out of there and home, but it was a great day. I'm so glad I went.
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